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Incident 795: Deepfake Elon Musk Videos Have Reportedly Contributed to Billions in Fraud

Description: Scammers used AI to create deepfake videos of Elon Musk promoting fraudulent investment opportunities. Over time, these scams have reportedly led to billions in investor losses. The deepfakes also use voice cloning technology. They have been distributed on social media and YouTube. In particular, they target the elderly, such as 82-year-old Steve Beauchamp, to invest significant sums. Despite efforts by platforms to remove these videos, the scams continue to proliferate.

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Alleged: Unknown deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Unknown deepfake creators and Unknown scammers, which harmed Elderly investors , Cryptocurrency users , Online investors , social media users , Retirees seeking investment opportunities , Steve Beauchamp and Elon Musk.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
795
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2024-08-14
Editors
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Malicious Actors & Misuse

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+1
How ‘Deepfake Elon Musk’ Became the Internet’s Biggest Scammer
Deepfakes of Elon Musk are contributing to billions of dollars in fraud losses in the U.S.
How ‘Deepfake Elon Musk’ Became the Internet’s Biggest Scammer

How ‘Deepfake Elon Musk’ Became the Internet’s Biggest Scammer

nytimes.com

Deepfakes of Elon Musk are contributing to billions of dollars in fraud losses in the U.S.

Deepfakes of Elon Musk are contributing to billions of dollars in fraud losses in the U.S.

cbsnews.com

How ‘Deepfake Elon Musk’ Became the Internet’s Biggest Scammer
nytimes.com · 2024

All Steve Beauchamp wanted was money for his family. And he thought Elon Musk could help.

Mr. Beauchamp, an 82-year-old retiree, saw a video late last year of Mr. Musk endorsing a radical investment opportunity that promised rapid returns. …

Deepfakes of Elon Musk are contributing to billions of dollars in fraud losses in the U.S.
cbsnews.com · 2024

She first saw the ad on Facebook. And then again on TikTok. After seeing what appeared to be Elon Musk offering an investment opportunity over and over again, Heidi Swan figured it had to be true. 

"Looked just like Elon Musk, sounded just …

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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